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Since that original Dream Team, five teams have participated on the global stage, with a sixth ready to roll into Rio this summer.THE 12 SUPERSTARS WHO MAKE ALL-TIME USA DREAM TEAMOn all but one occasion, Team USA came home with the gold — yet you might be surprised to learn that the bronze-medal team, though the result was an unprecedented disaster, isn’t the worst Olympic squad we’ve seen in the past 24 years.As for the best? Well, you can probably guess that one.7: 2000’s gold-medal squadYes, Team USA accomplished the ultimate goal of winning gold in 2000. This wasn’t the squad that embarrassed the national team by falling short, and for that, we’re thankful. Look at the roster, though! Ray Allen, Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett; those are all great players. You also had guys like Steve Smith, Antonio McDyess, Allan Houston, and Vin [expletive] Baker (that’s his God-given name, it’s fine). That this team won gold is a testament to how weak the field was in 2000, before teams like Argentina and Spain blossomed into their golden generations. Seriously — Vin. Baker.6: 2004’s bronze-medal squadOkay, this one hurts, but we can get through it together. That 2004 team was super-talented. Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Tim Duncan, Lamar Odom; that’s a solid squad. James, Wade and Melo were young, however, and Duncan was never comfortable on a team that was more focused on individual stardom than playing the right way. To top it all off, coach Larry Brown probably could have done a better job getting everyone on the same page. The 2004 squad was built for disaster, which came in the form of losses to Puerto Rico, Lithuania, and Argentina on the way to a bronze medal.5: 2008’s gold-medal squad“The Redeem Team” took on legendary status by re-establishing America’s basketball dominance in 2008, and it was undoubtedly a fantastic team. At this point, we’re basically splitting hairs, so this squad falls down the board a little bit because of the bench. Tayshaun Prince and Michael Redd were outstanding NBA players in their primes who probably wouldn’t make the Olympic team in any other year (except maybe the aforementioned 2000 squad).4: 2016’s Rio squadThey won’t be flashy, and you might or might not be watching. Don’t sleep on this year’s Olympic team, though. As a true basketball team, they’re perfectly constructed. You have talented point guards in Kyrie Irving and Kyle Lowry, big men who can control the paint on both ends in DeMarcus Cousins and DeAndre Jordan, and ridiculously skilled scoring forwards like Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony who will bury the opposition. This team should cruise to the gold medal.3: 1996’s gold-medal squadThis is the most underrated Olympic team, which was bound to happen in the wake of the Dream Team. You had players like Barkley, Stockton, Robinson, and Malone carrying over from the previous squad, plus Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal, and Grant Hill. In fact, here’s a bold take: Dream Team II could have given the original squad a run for its money.2: 2012’s gold-medal squadThe last Olympic squad was a little light in the middle, with Tyson Chandler and Anthony Davis playing centre. On the other hand, 2012’s team was loaded at guard and on the wings. The combined strength of LeBron, Kobe, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and a still-spry Andre Iguodala vaults this team just ahead of the 1996 roster, but it’s excruciatingly close.1: 1992’s gold-medal squadI mean, come on — it’s “The Dream Team.” When you put Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen, Magic Johnson, David Robinson, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Chris Mullin, Clyde Drexler and Patrick Ewing on the same team, you have the greatest collection of basketball talent the world has ever seen. Oh, and Christian Laettner was on the squad, too.read more

There were two very contrasting football results over the past weekend. Two matches were played at the National Stadium, one on Friday November 13 and the other the following Saturday. Both matches drew impressive crowd numbers and the results were a textbook study of contrasts. The match on Friday was a World Cup Qualifying (WCQ) encounter, the first of the second stage of the competition. The team selected had previously done very well in international competition, doing well against some of the top teams in the world, then moving on to the Gold Cup in North America, where we finished as the runners-up to Mexico. Of significance during those glory days of satisfactory results were reports of discontent among the players and the hierarchy of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), and in particular its smooth-talking President for life, Captain Horace Burrell. We did get reports of meetings just before important games of some players threatening to strike if promised payments and conditions were not met. Practices were abandoned, sponsorship agreements either postponed or reluctantly attended and an air of discontent could not be hidden from visual reports of the team on tour. However, after showing the Jamaican fans, and indeed the world, that at long last Jamaica’s football demanded respect, what seems to be the real motive of the players emerged. They do not perform for the love of representing their country. They perform for (a) the monetary reward and (b) to show their skills on an international stage, thus improving their chances of improved football contracts. Thus we had them abandoning the team in important matches for ‘personal reasons’, which ranged from ‘being with family’ to ‘going for a visa interview’. Thus Jamaica lost matches, tumbled down the international rankings, and came to being minutes away from failing to move to the present stage of WCQ. Assembled in Jamaica for a crucial home match against tough rivals Panama, the same old attitude and thought process reigned supreme. Then instead of levelling with an anxious public about the truth behind a delayed practice at ‘The Office’, our arrogant leader of Jamaica’s football behaves as if a reporter’s questions re the protracted meeting at the training venue, where shouts were heard coming from the meeting room, constituted an “annoyance”. The result was a display of the worst football seen at ‘The Office’ by a Jamaican team in years. Incompetence and plain “don’t care” seemed to be the order of the day. Thus: Panama 2 Jamaica 0. So it is on to Haiti, with again one of our key players not on the trip for ‘personal reasons’. The Reggae Boyz, when focused and ready, have the skills to bounce back and still qualify for the World Cup Finals in 2018. But the question to be answered is this: How long will the public be prepared to put up with repeated displays of disrespect from players and, President while hoping against hope that we will qualify for Russia? FLOW Super Cup On Saturday, November 14, at the same venue of the previous night’s debacle, the final of the FLOW Super Cup was played between St George’s College (StGC) and Jamaica College (JC). This time, the match was played by members of two teams (schoolboys) who gave their all for coach and school. Fans were treated to a match of such quality that spectators watched open mouth, in awe as StGC displayed skills that drew comparison to the great Barcelona! Well done, StGC! This display re-emphasises the point that our own local footballers, if given the chance, coaching, and exposure, can be groomed and trained to be a force to be reckoned with in global football If those in administration with the ability to think outside of their own financial well-being could identify a squad of young local ballers and keep them together in a year-long training and playing group, then we can qualify for another senior World Cup Finals. The present “formula” has consistently failed and will fail again, until we give our home-grown talent a chance. It can be done; however, not with the present hierarchy of the JFF. They have shown, time and time again, that as long as they are rewarded with trips and cash, nothing will change. We the football fans of Jamaica deserve better.read more

In 2013, following a lacklustre England performance during World Cup qualifying, Andy the Liverpool supporter called up with his idea to revolutionise the national side… and the rest is history.This classic clip of one frustrated fan’s plan to “save” England is guaranteed to make you chuckle, as Andy stuns talkSPORT presenters Andy Goldstein and Jason Cundy with his logic and ideas.Expect to see the England Under 21s playing against ‘A Foot-Premiership Reserve Team’ on a Wednesday/Thursday night very soon.Listen to The Sports Bar with Andy Goldstein and Jason Cundy on weeknights from 10pm on talkSPORT.read more

DONEGAL Daily is your news website.We know that because we know up to 30,000 of you visit the site every day, from here and abroad.We welcome contributions from readers. This one is from a mum in north Donegal. It is a very powerful view of life here in this county now for many parents whose children have been forced abroad.You can read it here – and respond below:Dear Sir,I honestly do not know where to start. I have never written to a paper before in my life. I am a mother of four children, three of whom have taken the emigration trail to Australia, and the fourth is waiting to finish college, having received no help whatsoever from the State. When he’s finished, I have no doubt that he will follow in their footsteps. I’m so angry and frustrated that at times I could pull my own hair out.I listen and watch the news at every opportunity and feel utterly betrayed by the shambolic decisions made by the previous government, which are being rubber-stamped by this administration.It’s all about big business and profit for bondholders, with people’s well-being coming a poor second to all of that. The elderly and the infirm are being seen as a drain on the State’s finances by faceless bureaucrats.You only have to look at the way that carers are being forced into accepting voluntary work as part of their package. Their hours have been cut so much that most, if not all, carers do more hours than they get paid for.Meanwhile, Minister Reilly continues to take every last bit of meat off the bone that is the public health service. My husband has worked in freezing conditions, where his fingers were stuck to the shovel, trying to provide for his family.These are the people who deserve lump sums when they retire, not some Fine Gael or Fianna Fail politician who is getting a big wage and will retire on two or three pensions to live in luxury that I can only dream about.When I go to visit a sick relative or friend in hospital, it sickens me to think that I’m paying a parking fee to keep some private car park operator living a Celtic Tiger lifestyle. Car parks in public hospital grounds should be for the benefit of the hospital and its patients only. I do not claim to be a genius, but I think that such a scenario is pure common sense.The problem, in my eyes, is that those running the country have no experience of living in the real world. These people need to come down off their pedestal and realise that they are not superior human beings to those they are treating as lesser mortals.We are a very weak and oppressed society with no avenue for redress at the moment, especially here in Donegal.I am tired and running out of words because those at the top are not listening, or do not care.Donegal Mother,VIEWPOINT: ONE MUM’S VIEW ON HER CHILDREN ABROAD, LIFE IN A RECESSION – AND OUR POLITICIANS was last modified: October 6th, 2012 by BrendaShare this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Tags:LIFE IN A RECESSION – AND OUR POLITICIANSVIEWPOINT: ONE MUM’S VIEW ON HER CHILDREN ABROADread more

DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake University women’s golf team has signed high school student-athletes to National Letters of Intent for the 2020-21 season, head coach Rachael Pruett-Hornbaker announced Monday, Nov. 18. Joining the Bulldogs in the fall will be Kelly Kavanagh (Arlington Heights, Ill.) and Aayushi Sarkar (Woodbury, Minn.).”I am very excited to have Aayushi and Kelly join our women’s golf program,” Pruett-Hornbaker said. “Both of these young ladies have sustained success as junior golfers and will be great additions to our team.”Kavanagh comes from Prospect High School in Prospect Heights, Ill., where she finished 16th in the Illinois Class 2A State Finals. Her team was the conference division champion in the Mid-Suburban League in all four years, and Kavanagh was named all-conference as a junior.Sarkar is a four-year captain for Woodbury High School with three top-10 finishes in the Minnesota state tournament, including a second-place finish as a sophomore. Sarkar has been named All-Suburban East Conference in each of the last three seasons and won the individual Suburban East Conference championship in her sophomore season.”[Kelly and Aayushi] have the ability to compete and contribute right away, adding competition and depth to our line up,” said Pruett-Hornbaker. “It’s an exciting time for Drake women’s golf!”The Bulldogs open up their spring season with the Ball State Match Play event in Dade City, Fla. on Feb. 6-7.Print Friendly Versionread more

SAN JOSE — Timo Meier, just a couple weeks after he was drafted ninth overall, was making such an impact as an 18-year-old in the Sharks’ development camp in 2015 that members of the team’s coaching staff and front office were starting to think he could play in the NHL that year.“He was a man (with) a teenager’s mindset,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said of Meier. “He was running around, hitting everything in sight. He looked like he could have played on the fourth line right away.”But while a …read more

2 May 2013 South Africa is attracting new attention from Chinese, Indian and Russian investors – including a planned visit by Chinese buyers who aim to spend R5-billion in the country later this year, says Department of Trade and Industry director-general Lionel October. Speaking to SAnews this week, October said the Chinese government was planning to co-ordinate a buying mission for their retail trading houses and state-owned enterprises in September, and was looking at spending R5 billion in provinces across the country. He said his department had signed a range of agreements at the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit which took place in Durban in March. These included agreements signed with China for setting up a cement plant in Limpopo province, and another with Chinese conglomerate Cherry to explore the possibility of setting up ship repair and small ship building facility in Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal. In another agreement concluded at the BRICS summit, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which has a 20% share in South Africa’s Standard Bank, agreed to invest its share of dividends over the next five years in local renewable energy projects. October said the department’s Russian counterparts had agreed during talks at the Durban summit that they would send buying missions to look at expanding purchases of South African juices and other long-shelf-life food products. He said Russia was now the biggest market for South Africa’s citrus fruits, with 12% of citrus exports heading to Russia. South Africa had been able to gain market share there, as European citrus is currently blighted by black-spot disease. Meanwhile, in March, Indian conglomerate the Action Group signed an agreement to set up an agricultural export hub at the Dube Tradeport in Durban. Source: SAnews.gov.zaread more

Share Facebook Twitter Google + LinkedIn Pinterest Our cold front is approaching faster. We will see clouds thicken today and rain arrives later this afternoon and evening. The rain continues through tomorrow late morning to midday. Rain totals are nearly unchanged this morning for the event tonight and tomorrow. We expect .2″-.6″ with 90% coverage. Temps stay warm today, but will come crashing down as the front passes tomorrow morning. We can see parts of far western Ohio (where the rain stops sooner and we could even see clouds break up by tomorrow morning) dip into the middle and upper 30s, which would be good enough for patchy frost. The rest of the state likely still has plenty of clouds and moisture around tomorrow morning, and therefore escapes the coldest overnight air.The balance of tomorrow turns out partly to mostly sunny, and then sun dominates all day Sunday, along with Monday. Temps are cool, but will bounce a little bit for Sunday and Monday.10 day rain potentialScattered showers are back late Tuesday afternoon and they continue into Wednesday late morning. Rain totals from this minor even will be from a few hundredths to .3″ with coverage at 70%. These totals are lower this morning compared to our look yesterday, due to the southern secondary surge of moisture staying farther south. Still, though, it will be enough to trigger a small pause in fieldwork in many places.Dry for the balance of Wednesday with clouds slowly dissipating. Then mostly sunny and slowly warming for the rest of the week, Thursday through Saturday.We kick off the extended period with a good chance of rain for Sunday the 20th, and that moisture lingers through Monday evening. The intensity is not all that spectacular, but we do end up with moisture adding up over the longer period. Rain totals can be from .1″-.5″ with coverage at 90% of Ohio. The rains are significantly higher farther west, where we see some thunderstorm potential. The rest of the extended period is sunny, dry and cool. We have no rain threat from Tuesday the 22nd through Saturday the 26th. Temps will be normal to below normal.read more

Having fallen far behind its mobile competitors, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion desperately needs its next-generation mobile operating system to be a hit. RIM pulled back the curtain on BB 10 today at its BlackBerry Jam developers conference in San Jose, showing off features the company hopes will pull it back from the brink of oblivion. BlackBerry 10 has been in development for 18 months and the finish line is finally in sight. For years, the knock against BlackBerry has been that it was badly outmaneuvered and its aging OS has not kept pace with smartphone innovation. These points are pretty much beyond dispute. BB 10, then, is RIM’s valiant, if fraught, effort to claw its way back into the market.A Sweeter BlackBerryRIM CEO Thorsten Heins showed off several new aspects of BlackBerry 10 intended to drum up excitement for the platform among mobile developers, consumers and enterprises. The first is a unified messaging interface called BlackBerry Hub, an always-on inbox that stores emails, texts, calendar, events and BlackBerry Messenger. Users will be able access Hub on BlackBerry devices from any app or the home screen by swiping up and over from the edges of the device.RIM is also focused on maintaining its traditional strength in the enterprise. The BlackBerry Balance feature customizes the user experience between personal and work interfaces while providing security and data protection. RIM will also unveil a new version of its app store, BlackBerry App World, that is optimized for enterprise applications. Employees using BB 10 will be able to toggle their phone between work and personal use, with work settings controlled directly by their employer’s IT department.At RIM’s BlackBerry World conference in May, Heins unveiled BB 10’s predictive text feature, which the company hopes will revolutionize typing on mobile devices. Initial reviews of BlackBerry hardware’s new keyboard were tepid. At today’s keynote, Heins showed off another new user interface feature called BlackBerry Flow, a contextual touchscreen feature that knows where a finger is touching on the screen and can be integrated across all BB 10 apps.BB 10 will also integrate a feature called “active frames” that are essentially small, developer-customizable widgets that can live on the device’s home screen. Imagine a cross between Windows Phone 8 Live Tiles and Android widgets.Heins said that BB 10 is on schedule. It will go into beta test in October through RIM’s carrier partners and will be released with new devices in the first quarter of 2013. Making Sense Of RIM’s New Approach Why IoT Apps are Eating Device Interfaces Role of Mobile App Analytics In-App Engagement Tags:#mobile#RIM Seeing the interface of BB 10 during the keynote, several things come immediately to mind. First, BB 10 looks eerily similar to Android. The active frames are small apps on the home screen, just like widgets, and the app icons could be younger brothers of Android’s primary interface. Android critics initially charged that Google’s mobile OS was a copy of Apple’s iOS (which may have been true at one point, but no longer). Can RIM win by copying Android? At least the BlackBerry interface will feel familiar to many users.BlackBerry Flow and Hub are interesting, somewhat unique, features. These are not apps, per se, but part of the platform’s architecture. That means they can be integrated into just about any experience that runs on BB 10, always present, always available to be configured to a developer’s application. These persistent user experience features will give BB 10 a feeling of differentiation from Android, iOS and Windows Phone – but they may not be enough to win users back to BlackBerry’s platform. The goal is clear: RIM needs to turn BB 10 into a modern operating system that is close enough to the competitors that it will not alienate users while adding distinctive functions that differentiate it from Android and iOS. Once that base is in place, BlackBerry can push its strengths: communication and security. It was no coincidence that Heins’s primary messages at the BlackBerry Jam keynote were Hub and Balance. Traditional strengths integrated into an entirely new user experience should excite the BlackBerry faithful, but it might be too little, too late to turn the heads of consumers and enterprises that have long since abandoned RIM. Related Posts dan rowinski What it Takes to Build a Highly Secure FinTech … The Rise and Rise of Mobile Payment Technologyread more

Lacson: SEA Games fund put in foundation like ‘Napoles case’ Don’t miss out on the latest news and information. DILG, PNP back suspension of classes during SEA Games View comments NGCP on security risk: Chinese just technical advisers KUALA LUMPUR- A total of 409 foreigners were picked up and a passport-forging syndicate masterminded by a Pakistani man was busted in the first ever large-scale joint operation led by Bukit Aman Special Branch Counter Ter­rorism Division.ADVERTISEMENT NATO’s aging eye in the sky to get a last overhaul MOST READ Trump signs bills in support of Hong Kong protesters Most residents cooperated when the authorities came knocking, with documents in hand for verification.Those who ignored the knocks soon had their doors and locks broken.Some units where the occupants refused to cooperate were found to be full of foreigners with incomplete papers or none at all.Police also detected fake passport makers and seized some RM54,000 along with 70 passports, including 67 Indian passports, and a machine used to forge Immigration stickers.Resident Annuar Amin, 43, said he was shocked to see dozens of suspects tied up at the apartment courtyard as they awaited processing.“I was about to go back upstairs, but I saw people being rounded up,” he said.“Then I heard loud noises, so I decided to just wait below until everything was over.”DCP Ayob said the 409 foreigners detained were brought to Bukit Aman for further screening.“They were from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Indonesia, Myanmar, Oman, Yemen and Nigeria, among others,” he said.“We held those suspected of being involved in terrorism activities. The others were handed over to Immigration for offences under their jurisdiction. Robredo should’ve resigned as drug czar after lack of trust issue – Panelo About 200 law enforcement officers hit the streets yesterday to nab foreigners linked to international terror groups, those without valid documents and those suspected of illegal activities.Counter Terrorism Division head Deputy Comm Datuk Ayob Khan later confirmed that the operation was held as part of preparations for the 2017 SEA Games, which starts on Aug 19.FEATURED STORIESSPORTSSEA Games: Biñan football stadium stands out in preparedness, completionSPORTSPrivate companies step in to help SEA Games hostingSPORTSWin or don’t eat: the Philippines’ poverty-driven, world-beating pool starsConcentrating on the city centre around Jalan Masjid India, security personnel in full tactical gear were not only armed but also equipped with radionuclide identification devices (RID) to detect radioactive material.Counter Terrorism Division offi­cers, along with their comrades from other units such as the Special Action Unit, General Operations Force Tiger Platoon and Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department, took part. Celebrity chef Gary Rhodes dies at 59 with wife by his side Other agencies involved were the Immigration Department, Atomic Energy Licensing Board, National Registration Department and Interpol.Weekenders flooding the streets were initially shocked to see such a huge deployment of manpower.Public buses were also stopped for checks and in one instance, a Nigerian man ran so fast to escape that bystanders commented that he was faster than Usain Bolt.Police personnel managed to catch him, although it took five of them to overpower him.In a raid on the Menara City One condominium in Jalan Munshi Abdullah, multiple enforcement teams made their way from the top and lowest floors simultaneously, with armed officers at stairwells to block escape routes.ADVERTISEMENT “(The op) is focused on the Klang Valley. Our top goal is to nab foreign terrorist elements.“We are being proactive in dealing with possible threats.,”DCP Ayob also said the operation did not detect any radioactive ma­­terial, but his division will continue to use RID in future operations.“Given that terrorists are beco­ming more creative in using radioactive devices, we have to be equipped with the right tools,” he said.Sports Related Videospowered by AdSparcRead Next LATEST STORIES Sparring partner Malignaggi slams ‘scumbag’ McGregor Robredo should’ve resigned as drug czar after lack of trust issue – Panelo Trending Articles PLAY LIST 00:50Trending Articles02:49World-class track facilities installed at NCC for SEA Games03:07PH billiards team upbeat about gold medal chances in SEA Games05:25PH boxing team determined to deliver gold medals for PH03:04Filipino athletes share their expectations for 2019 SEA Games00:45Onyok Velasco see bright future for PH boxing in Olympics02:25PH women’s volleyball team motivated to deliver in front of hometown crowd01:27Filipino athletes get grand send-off ahead of SEA Games00:36Manny Pacquiao part of 2019 SEA Games opening ceremonyread more